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)RTH-SIDE 
CEDARS 



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ORTH-SIDE 
CEDARS 



I 



RIMED AND PHOTOGRAPHED 

IN HUNTINGTON TOWN 

ON LONG ISLAND 



Copyright, 1914, by 

The De Vinne Press 




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SPRINGING from earth as lightly 
As forest creatures play; 
Sedate as old friends musing 

The things they need not say; 
With dignity, with jaunty grace, 

With grave or canny mien — 
With individuality. 
They wear their sober green. 



1:33 




Not noble in the fashion 

Of elm and oak or pine, 
But a comely clan, these cedars, 

Of long and honored line; 
And whether clumped in companies 

Or faring forth alone, 
Social or solitary, 

They Ve character of their own. 



C4] 




Freakish, you say? Well, maybe; 

And maybe brave and true — 
Reaching for some ideal. 

Striving and missing too, 
And on and on pursuing, 

While endlessly they toil 
Deep down, with wiry fingers. 

Binding the shifty soil. 



[6] 




Some testify of conflict 

With foes that blight and blast; 
Still fighting for a future 

While frank about their past, 
Tell too of life tenacious, 

Undaunted seem to say — 
Environment may hammer, 

Good heart will have his day. 



1:7] 




Stanch old sea-captains some are, 

Sun- wizened, tempest-scarred; 
Some are the laddies drilling. 

In rank or file, on guard; 
Some might be village magnates. 

So prosperously they stand; 
And some are we plain farmers. 

Knowing who owns the land. 



[8] 




Some draw like spires toward heaven, 

Some broaden toward their kind, 
Some of the earth are earthy; 

Now and again you '11 find 
Halves all askew, mismated. 

Yet somehow and of course 
Growing along together. 

Undreaming of divorce. 



C?] 




The stalwart, tranquil cedars; 

The younglings smart and slim; 
The groups and pairs of sisters, 

Symmetrical and trim; 
The rough-and-tumble urchins, 

Careless of tousled hair; 
The midgets sitting straight up 

In the grass here and there — 



« 



'T is with a sort of kinship 

I love them every one. 
How fine the breath of cedar trees 

When basking in the sun! € 

How friendly is their shelter 

From northeasters austere! 
The robins need no telling. 

All winter some stay here. 

CIO] 




My forefathers are buried 

Under this island sod; 
One built on that neck yonder 

In sixteen-sixty-odd; 
No one knows where his grave is; 

It were not strange, maybe, 
Should his earthly substance live to-day 

In some sturdy cedar tree. 



[123 




Along this shore are cedars 
That all the sailors know; 

And some are ancient landmarks 
Recorded long ago; 

ni33 




When these old trees were saplings 

Great Liberty was young; 
They caught the smoke of battle 

And thrilled when peace bells rung. 



[14] 




Our cedars have grand kinsfolk 

Age-old and far away 
In Oregon, on Lebanon, 

(You Ve seen them, do you say?) 



C15] 



Giants and kings that tower 

And dwell in majesty; 
My neighbor cedars speak of them 

And of more yet, to me. 




16] 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 




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